Armand Guillaumin

Catalogue entry

Armand Guillaumin 1841-1927

N04824 Moret-sur-Loing 1902

Inscribed 'Guillaumin' b.l.
Oil on canvas, 23 5/8 x 28 3/4 (60 x 73)
Purchased from J.W. Freshfield (Lewis Publications 'A' Fund) 1936
Prov: With Galerie Marcel Bernheim, Paris; with Leicester Galleries, London; J.W. Freshfield, Reigate, 1927
Exh: Salon d'Automne, Paris, November-December 1926 (2440) as 'Moret-sur-Loing'; Works by Armand Guillaumin, Leicester Galleries, London, May-June 1927 (19) as 'Les Moulins de Moret' 1880
Lit: Exhibition: The Memoirs of Oliver Brown (London 1968), p.100; Christopher Gray, Armand Guillaumin (Chester 1972), p.57
Repr: La Renaissance de l'Art Français, IX, 1926, p.616 as 'Moret sur Loing'; Carlos Peacock, Painters and Writers (London 1949), pl.56 in colour

A view up the Loing towards the bridge and church of Moret. Guillaumin painted at least two more pictures of this view from the same position but in different conditions of light, as well as two pictures from points a little further to the right, all of them apparently done during the same visit. The two most closely related paintings are Nos.502 and 503 in the catalogue raisonné by G. Serret and D. Fabiani, Armand Guillaumin 1841-1927 (Paris 1971), both as 'Le Vieux Samois' c.1900. No.502 was included in the Henri Vian sale at the Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, on 27 November 1919, lot 13 as 'Moret; morning', while one of the pictures showing the view from the right was lot 14 in the same sale as 'Moret; evening effect'. The other picture seen from the right, Vizzavona photo 41512, is now in the Brodie Castle collection, Scotland.

The Tate's work is very close in composition to Nos.502 and 503 except that the latter both include a man fishing from a small boat in the middle distance and lack the boats moored to the near bank. If No.502 is a morning effect and No.503 is a sunlight one probably about mid-day, the Tate's picture would seem to be an overcast effect in the afternoon. The view is looking to the south-east.

Though the picture bought by the Tate was dated 1880 when exhibited at the Leicester Galleries in 1927, the handling suggests a later date. The artist's widow and daughter Marguerite were certain that Guillaumin did not visit Moret in that year and that he was there in 1902. 'I am absolutely sure of this date of 1902', wrote Mlle Guillaumin (letter of 12 December 1954), 'for, as a child, I was there convalescing, and my father, who was an excellent father, installed himself there at the time not to leave me on my own'. No.503 was dated 1902 when reproduced in the Fine Arts Journal, XXX, 1914, p.57 and another picture of Moret, 'Moret. Railway Bridge', was also dated 1902 when shown at the Salon d'Automne in 1926 (2454). According to Gray, Guillaumin was at Moret in the spring of that year.

There are many pictures of the same bridge by Sisley, who died at Moret in 1899.

The Tate's work is not included in the first volume of the Guillaumin catalogue raisonné, but will be included in a second volume or supplement. It was entitled 'The Mills at Moret' when exhibited at the Leicester Galleries, the mills being the low buildings on the left.

Published in:
Ronald Alley, Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, p.345, reproduced p.345

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